AMERICAN soldiers will be expelled from Pakistan in the diplomatic fallout from Osama bin Laden’s death.

The Pakistani army yesterday ordered a reduction in US personnel in the country in apparent protest at the raid.

America has around 275 “declared US military personnel” in Pakistan at any one time, some training the Pakistan army. Islamabad said American numbers will be reduced to “minimum essential levels”. It came as President Barack Obama visited 9/11 Ground Zero amid reports he had infuriated predecessor George Bush by claiming credit for bin Laden’s killing.

Yesterday the diplomatic fallout following the US Special Forces mission threatened to overshadow the President’s sombre attempt to bury the memory of the terror leader. Islamabad’s foreign secretary Salman Bashir hit back at claims Pakistan had harboured bin Laden, saying: “Pakistan security forces are neither incompetent nor negligent about their duty to protect Pakistan.”

Bashir said it was “wrong” to blame the ISI Pakistan intelligence, said to have links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The military also warned the US not to launch more raids as it started an inquiry into how bin Laden lived so long at large in Abbottobad.